Monday, 23 April 2012

Jon Mayhew - The Bonehill Curse - Book Review

Paperback: 384 pages

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (10 May 2012)

ISBN-10: 1408803976

ISBN-13: 978-1408803974

I was really looking forward to reading Jon's third published book - I had great expectations for it. The theme really appealed to me; a twisted story of evil Djinns. However, in this case, there was only one - which was a really great shame.

The story is partially set within Victorian London time, with some mad and typically English eccentric characters, but unfortunately they were described rather vaguely which didn't really do them any justice in my opinion. However, the story also takes you on a magic carpet ride to a strange place depicted as a twisted version of the Garden of Eden which I thought was a great idea. In fact, this second setting really gave a little bit of magic to the adventure.

I really loved the storyline of this book - it was very enjoyable, although it did seem rather short to me. I found myself on page one and then, before I knew it, the book was finished. It's not short on pages, so what happened?

Unfortunately I found the darker side of this book to be disappointing. Compared to Jon's previous books, I felt there wasn't enough detail within the important sections, it just didn't have that punchy edge. Zaakiel, the Djinn in the book, although evil and driven by revenge; he just lacked a certain trait. Perhaps I wanted a nastier streak to be injected into the character in order to drive his soul. Perhaps I needed his personality to be larger and to have a stronger connection and dialogue with the other characters. Perhaps this would have enhanced his character and given a little more life to the plot.

The Pestilents, ragged infected humans controlled by Zaakiel, again I felt didn't reach their full potential. I really wanted to be immersed in a full battle scene, but unfortunately we seemed to skip over much of this and I really would have loved to have read more. However the main character in the book, Necessity BoneHill, did gain more page space and as a result was written particularly well and was totally likeable.

I did enjoy many aspects of this book - some parts were highly original. Its vibrant and energetic pace tells a fantastic story. I would still recommend everyone to read this book as I know that my thoughts and opinions are very much focused on what I like and, as a result, are very often different to what other people like. Therefore, I'd love to hear what you all think - were my expectations too high? Am I alone in these thoughts?

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